Day 3 - Seeing Andy's Seattle!

Today was an exciting day as we got to spend the day with Andy seeing Seattle through his eyes!

Our first stop in the morning was coffee while Andy slept it (it was a day off for him after all)

After a quick romp in the park near his house to wear out the dogs, we headed back to get Andy up and going. A BIG thanks to Will, his roommate for being willing to work from home and dog-sit for the day. First stop, a tour of Microsoft!

Very cool displays of video game moments!

Peter aspires to be a statue

Well...we lost Peter!

Woo!

After touring the hallowed halls of Microsoft (and seeing only the places where we were allowed to go), we headed off to do some serious touristy stuff...namely, Pike's Place Market!

Lunch overlooking the Sound at Pike's Place...expensive but decent.

Obligatory sign photo

The Park by Pike's Place

Before heading to dinner, we drove around a bit, went over (and under) a few bridges, and then headed up to Kerry Park on Queen Anne's hill...one of the highest points in Seattle!

We then headed back to Andy's place for some brief R&R before heading off to a dog friendly brewery. It was a blast and everyone loved the dogs (of course!) and they were very well behaved!

It was hot. Tongues were out most of the evening.

Andy, Steve and Will!

The dogs think they're people!

Em met up with college friend Maddie!

After our visit to the Brewing Company, we headed off to Norm's (another very dog friendly place) for a late dinner. The dogs were excellent and at the end of the meal, we were done with the day!

Ready for food!

Will and Emily were on the other side of the dogs. 

 We said goodnight and left the kids and dogs at the apartment while Steve and I headed off for our last night at the Marco Polo Motel!

Chillin' at the apartment at the end of the day.

Day 2 - drive, drive, drive!

So Montana is long!

Needless to say, we entered Montana sometime in the night yesterday, and drove through Montana the better part of today. Over 675 miles of our trip were spent in Montana!  I took the 2-4am drive, Steve took the 4-7am drive, I took the 7-9am drive, and then Steve drove the rest of the day. I think in the end, he drove over 24 hours of the full 41 hour trip! (Yes, 41 hours, counting the long stops with friends...oof!)

What a way to travel!

We decided to stop for a late breakfast in Bozeman to meet up with friends for brunch, and I'm SO GLAD WE DID!  They had picked up two golden retriever puppies the day before (7 weeks old!) and brought them along. Between their older golden, the puppies and our two dogs, it was a GOLDEN PUPPY PARTY!

After we had our puppy fix (and our fair share of puppy smells), we were back on our way.  

Some interesting things we saw as we traveled:

Hot air balloons getting ready to launch

An air show

Way too many bugs!

As we traveled through the hills of western Montana, we saw smoke up ahead. As we got closer, we realized we would be driving right past one of the wildfires Montana has to fight every summer.  It was amazing to see firefighting up close.

Idaho!

Welcome to Idaho!

Well that was quick.

Washington!

Washington is so pretty. I couldn't stop taking photos!

Those are the last mountains we had to cross.

Mt. Rainier!!

And then, finally...ANDY!!!

Lily wouldn't stop barking hello!

Reunited and it feels so good!

After unloading the car and having a late dinner, it was finally time to say goodnight. 

We left the kids and the dogs with Andy, and we headed over to the Marco Polo Motel. Va va VOOM!

It's only $100 a night, but it's clean and it's a 3 minute walk to Andy's place. So it's PERFECT!

Day 1 - 17 hours in the car and counting

You gotta go east to go west!

Camp Celebration!

Our first day on the road started with us heading in the wrong direction, but it was all for a good cause...we needed to pick up Peter from camp! He had a great week but was ready to hit the road for our incredibly long drive. After handing off items he wouldn't need for the trip to his camp buddy, we were on our way!

Riding in the car with the animals is wonderful and hard. It takes twice as long when we stop, but they are quite snuggly in the car. Lily is happy to be included, but I think they are both wondering where the heck we are headed on this long drive!

Sometimes the ride was very peaceful.

Here are the states in order of when we got there...

Wisconsin!

First state on our trek (not counting Indiana and Illinois) was Wisconsin! We made a few stops including a stop where we found cheese! (go figure)  The Humbird Cheese stop had all the cheese you could want, including cheese heads, cheese ties and cheese mugs!

Outside with the dogs, Peter noticed a rock in one of the holes in the big sign. Turns out it was a rock painted like cheese which had a message on it. What fun!

We left it for someone else to find. :)

Minnesota!

When we crossed the border into Minnesota, it was like my cousin had ESP. He text me a joke out of the blue, and I mentioned that we would be in Minneapolis in two hours. He suggested a dog-friendly place, and we ended up having a wonderful meal together. Talk about serendipity! (AND, we got to have the dogs on the patio because of legislation HE got passed allowing dogs at outside patio restaurants!)

After our (way longer than it should have been but the break was really nice) dinner, we said our goodbyes to Scott, fed the dogs and headed out for our long night's journey into tomorrow.

North Dakota!

zzzzzzzz...

Eastern Montana!

zzzzzzzz...

I tried to get photos when we entered North Dakota and Montana, but, well, it was dark.

I'll have better photos of Montana tomorrow!